Life's Curves
by Colie88
Summary: Life loves throwing wrenches into carefully laid plans and even plans that aren't really plans yet - just mere ideas floating around. Learning to deal with the curves is part of growing up, but how much responsibility can someone -or more than just one- take all at once? James/Lily. Starts in 7th year and goes from there.
1. Chapter 1

_I'm BACK! Who missed me?! I missed all of you! And I've got more writings up my sleeve! My oldest is in school now, as of this year, so I have time to write! This story has been in the works for awhile and I have 9 chapters of it already written (including this first one). I will do two updates a week - Mondays and Fridays to start. I may end up having to_

_go to weekly updates, but we'll see. For now, enjoy! _

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_June, end of 6th year:_

Lily stopped short outside of Professor McGonagall's office. "What are you doing here?"

James shrugged. "McG asked to see me. I assume that's why you're here too."

Lily nodded, but said nothing else. They stood in silence for five long minutes until Professor McGonagall arrived. She opened the door and moved to sit in the lonely chair behind her desk. "Sit,"

Lily and James each took one of the seats in front of her, Lily sat upright and attentive and James slouched down, as if he really didn't want to be there. Minerva surveyed them for a moment. Then she sighed.

"Hopefully with this early warning, you two can learn to get-" Professor McGonagall said.

"Er, Professor? What warning would that be?" James interrupted and Lily sent a frown his way.

Minerva sighed. "The Head Boy and Girl positions, of course. Surely you two had some idea that you were to be named?"

"Dumb- Professor Dumbledore gave him Head Boy?"' Lily asked, stunned.

"Yes, Ms. Evans. And you are to be next years' Head Girl."

"But why?"

"Well, surely, Ms Evans, your achievements speak for themselves-"

"No, not me. Him. Why him?"

James glared at her. Lily was acting as though he wasn't even in the room or couldn't speak for himself. "Professor, surely there is some mistake. I'm not even prefect."

"I assure you, Potter, Evans, that there is no mistake and that the two of you will be Heads, unless one or both of you wish to resign that post now?"

"No," They both answered, and then turned to glare at each other as if they expected the other to give a different answer.

"Very well, you may go. The train will leave in an hour to take you home. And do try to enjoy your summers."

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_September 1st, 7th year_

Lily smoothed her hands over the stack of papers before her nervously as she awaited everyone elses arrival into her train compartment. She looked around again, glancing at the papers in front of her one last time, making sure she'd put them in the proper order again. Waiting was not her thing. She hated it. The more time Lily spent waiting on anything, the more uptight she got about whatever it was. In this case, it was waiting to see whether James Potter was even going to show for the Head meeting. Unfortunately for her, Potter was Head Boy.

James Potter Head Boy? Yep, Dumbledore had gone senile. No one in their right mind would name James Potter (who wasn't even a prefect at all!) Head Boy. What had the man been thinking, putting one of the masters of mayhem in the top position? In charge of paper work and house points, detentions and patrols? Giving him responsibility that he clearly couldn't handle, given his past actions. But it was out of her control... she should just let it go...

Really though, James Potter?! At least he was better than Malfoy or even Snape. She may not like Potter's demeanor or personality, but she wasn't stupid enough to realize that she'd gotten lucky that it was him and not someone even more unpleasant. The least she could do was be civil. Besides, they were both of age, it was time they started acting like adults. And if that meant being civil, so be it. She could do that. Even if it took most of her will power.

James entered a few moments later with Remus. Remus took a seat towards the back of the room as Lily started to talk about what James should know, a smile on his face. It had taken all of Remus' patience to talk James into showing up instead of skipping out on her- which Remus had said wouldn't make to a great start as Head Boy or a good impression on Lily.

Of course, with James and Lily as heads, he knew it would only be a matter of time before the two of them were at each other's throats. It's what they did. Fight. Though generally the fighting came when James cursed or hexed someone...or a prank had gone wrong (he winced at the memory of Lily's red hair being bright blue for a week because she'd caught them setting up a prank and had accidentally set it off prematurely). Other than that...the two seemed to get along. But Remus wasn't sure if that was because they spent most of their out of class time apart or not. James had him, Sirius and Peter and Lily had her friends too. All Remus wanted was to get through his final year at Hogwarts without having to mend or replace one of James' limbs that Lily broke or cut (though the last time Lily had cracked two of James' ribs with a reducto curse, James had honestly deserved it).

James on the other hand was quickly learning a few things about Lily Evans that he didn't already know. She liked to plan...if the fact that she had every minute of the meeting ahead planned down to a T meant anything, and control things. It had to be her way apaprently, for it to be right. This year was certainly going to be interesting.

"Well, what if I want to cover the patrol schedule?" James asked. Not that he'd want to make up a new schedule every four weeks for at least sixteen students. Two from every house from fifth year to seventh year, plus he and Lily. Nope. Not in his right mind would he ever want to tackle that, but he figured he should at least attempt to show he was listening to her repeat herself half a dozen times. Plus, he decided, she was rather cute as she talked round and round herself without even realizing it.

"I've already got them done for the first month. If you want it that bad, you can start in October."

James frowned in shock. "You've...but that's impossible. You don't know who the new ones are yet!"

"Simple math. And all I have to do is fill in names after the meeting. I just put the first letter of each house in a time block on a certain day of the week. Then when we know who belongs in what house, I'll erase those letters and add the names instead." Lily waved the paper holding the patrols in front of him.

James shook his head in slight amazement. "Right... so you do that. And I'll...uh..make sure slips for detentions and house point deductions are filled out by everyone."

"As long as you fill them out this way..." And Lily proceeded to show him, as if he were four, how to fill out the form.

"Oy, Evans...! I'm pretty sure I know how those work," Having gotten about five hundred of them hmiself, he could recite what those specific papers said.

"But you have to do it the proper way or it'll be sent back and cause double the work!" Lily said and James could tell she was horrified by the thought of not doing something right the first time.

"I can read. And follow directions for myself, thanks. I don't need you showing me every little detail."

"All I'm doing is showing you the right way!" Lily said.

"By whose standards? Yours or the real ones?"

"Does it matter as long as it gets done?" she shot back.

James sighed. "Well, yea, Evans, it does. If the other way is shorter and less time consuming, I'm going with that. I've got enough on my plate without you hounding me too." Like the fact that Severus Snape knew Remus was a werewolf and could let it slip despite Dumbledore telling him not to. That Sirius was on probation for possible expulsion till Christmas for that "prank" that caused Snape to find out about Remus, Quidditch try outs, practices, booking the fields, homework, worrying about Voldemort inside and outside the castle walls, the fact that his father had fallen ill just before summer holidays had started and still needed to recover, Head duties on top of that, and not to mention NEWTS at the end of the year. Thank Merlin he learned to apparate at the end of last year, or he'd have to do that this year too! For him, the year was dragging out ahead, into one long day after another.

Lily pursed her lips. "I didn't realize I was "hounding" you already. Pardon me for trying to catch you up to speed on things since I'm pretty sure you didn't read the information letter that came with your appointment letter and badge."

She had a point, but he wasn't about to tell her that. "I learn as I go. Practice makes perfect." Her face changed to one of shock, as if she couldn't imagine ever doing such a thing.

Yep. This was going to be one long year for him.


	2. Chapter 2

This was so not happening! With a frustrated sigh, Lily searched her room again for the missing essay on Fairies and their magical abilities for Charms. She KNEW she put the essay in her bag on the Saturday before, but now, as she double checked her things for class that morning, it was missing. How was that even possible? It was only the third week of school, for crying out loud! She could NOT lose a homework assignment within the first month (not to mention the fact that she had never lost one to start with).

Her room was immaculate. She'd checked it, straightened it again, rearranged a few things, moved a few things then moved them back to their original spots, and finally after the fourth time of searching the perfectly clean room did she admit bitter defeat. It just wasn't there. And she had written it! She had! What was she going to tell Flitwick? It wasn't like she could rewrite it in the time she had left. In fact, she spent any extra time she might have had to relax at breakfast searching her room for that damned essay.

Sitting on the edge of her bed, she looked around, irritated that she couldn't find it. It wasn't even about getting a missing grade for it (okay, maybe it was just a bit). It was the fact that she KNEW she had done it. Had finished it, signed her name and dated it and put it carefully in the front cover of her charms book over the weekend. And not touched her work since. But the essay was not there. It just wasn't, no matter how hard she looked.

Lily gave a frustrated sigh again and blew out a breath. Defeat sucked, especially when it was against words written on parchment. Then she grabbed her neatly packed bag and left her room, walking through her private common room and headed to breakfast hoping that at least one of her friends had managed to get her something before the good stuff had disappeared.

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James pulled his invisibility cloak off himself, chuckling and glancing at his hand that held her missing essay. Oh, Evans made it too easy. He found over the last three weeks that she was easy to rile up... and he didn't have to talk to her to do it! The books she placed sideways on the end table in their shared common room? He moved them. She put them back. He moved them again and watched her get irritated. They had to be sideways. Not vertical, upside down or even on the opposite corner. The right top corner of the table in the common room. Not to mention the books had to be perfectly aligned...

Then there was the whole thing with her toothbrush. It ALWAYS had to go right behind the toothpaste container. If it wasn't there, she'd move it there. If he left the toothpaste on his side of the counter, she'd move it to hers with her tooth brush as if to say, "Mine, hands off!" Her room was immaculate from the bed being made the exact same way every morning to there not being any dust, even under the bed. Just the fact that he could SEE under the bed said something in and of itself on how she kept the sheets off the floor.

But seeing how anal she got over the smallest things that didn't go her way or weren't the "proper" way made him specifically go out of his own way to get her worked up (though she had no idea that 90% of the time he was doing it on purpose). He found it amusing. Not to mention she was rather adorable when her cheeks were flushed with frustration and her eyes had a slightly brighter tint to them too. Of course, while he enjoyed seeing her worked up over the smallest things, he did it for another reason all his own. It helped distract him from thinking of his father, of the reality he was pretending didn't exist while at school.

His father wasn't any better, according to letters his mum had sent. His dad was too weak to really write, had been for quite some time, so she did it for him. That fact alone had James worried about his father. Then he had school responsibilities. He had to schedule a time to do Quidditch tryouts within the week. The first game was in November against Ravenclaw and he needed time to practice with the newer team mates. At least he had booked the pitch four nights a week every week between Saturday and the game at the end of November two days after classes had started. Of course when he mentioned that fact to Lily, she'd gotten upset that she would have to redo the patrol schedule to work around those nights- two prefects plus James were on the team . And that argument had made him vow to silently annoy her, which added to the fun of moving things around on her. The less talking they did, the better, it seemed. At least when they only spoke out of necessity, it was civil, if a bit forced on her end.

At least Sirius had kept a low profile since the start of term. In fact, the Marauders hadn't pulled one prank yet this year, and their first full moon was in three days. That meant Sirius didn't have detention, nor did he. They wouldn't be late for their monthly outings due to detention for once. And, even more surprisingly, Snape hadn't teased, threatened, or tried to torment Remus once. James wasn't sure why- Snape would love to gloat and hold that over their heads, but he suspected Dumbledore may have had something to do with that.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, James stored his cloak back in his own room and sighed. He'd better give Lily her essay back before she went postal on the Great Hall and the unsuspecting students that had no idea how...well, nuts, she really was. He grabbed his bag and dashed down the stairs to breakfast.

He dumped his bag on the seat between Sirius and Peter and continued making his way down the table to Lily who, sure enough, was complaining about her missing essay to Marlene, Susan, and Mary.

"Oh stuff it, Lily," Susan moaned. "It won't be the end of the damned world if you don't find it."

"But I had it! I know I did. I put it in the front of my book Saturday night and now it's gone. I can't find it anywhere!" Lily answered; searching her bag for what James figured was at least the hundredth time.

"Maybe it fell out? Maybe the house elves took it when they cleaned the common room." Marlene suggested.

"No, not possible," Lily answered.

"Well, it's not in the bag," Mary finally said. "So stop looking there and actually eat something."

"Wait... you wrote an essay LAST Saturday that wasn't due for almost a week?" Susan asked incredulously.

"Not all of us leave work till the last minute, Susan," Lily answered grabbing an apple and shoving it into her mouth. But she didn't bite it. Instead, she held it there between her teeth while she researched her bag.

"Waiting to do it on a Wednesday when it's not due till Friday is not last minute," Susan argued.

"No, last minute is right before class and having none of it down," James said finally making his presence known. "Like Sirius is doing right now," he nodded toward his friend who was scribbling away on parchment up the table.

Susan snorted. "Right. That's last minute, Lils,"

Lily pulled the apple out of her mouth and sighed. "Is there something you wanted, Potter?"

He held out her essay. "Found this on the stairs in the dorm. Thought you might need it."

Lily frowned and reached for it. "On the stairs? In the dorms? But…it wasn't in my bag when I left..." She eyed James suspiciously. "Did you take it and use it to cheat?"

"Evans, I don't need to cheat from you. I assure you I did not take it to cheat." Which was true. He actually hadn't taken it to cheat. In fact, it had been in the front of her charms book until early this morning when he'd removed it.

"Well...er...thanks then. For bringing it to me," Lily said somewhat confused and still suspicious.

He gave her a salute and walked off, back to his own seat with a self-satisfied smirk. And to top it off, technically he hadn't even lied to her. He plopped into his seat and reached for some eggs.

"You stole Evans' essay, didn't you?" Remus asked as he shoved bacon into his mouth.

James shrugged. "Maybe,"

Remus rolled his eyes. "You should really not egg her on like that."

"She didn't even know I took it. Besides, she makes it easy. And fun."

"Fun?" Sirius popped up from his essay. "Did I just hear three letters that I've wanted to hear since the first day?"

"I could give you those three letters any time you want. There's also F-U-C-"

"Yes!" James interrupted Remus. "I need fun. I'm going nuts buried in school work and it's not like I'll dig out of it anytime soon, with practice starting next week."

"After try-outs tomorrow," Sirius rubbed his hands together in glee. "I have the perfect prank."

Remus rubbed his nose. "And pray tell, what is this perfect prank?"

"Tell you in free period," Sirius answered. "I've gotta get this down first."

"Why didn't you do it last night with Peter?" Remus asked

"Alise Spencer."

"Good snog?" James asked, popping a grape into his mouth.

"Would I be doing a two foot long essay thirty minutes before class if it wasn't?"

"Yes," Remus and James answered together.

"Sod off,"

James pounded Sirius on the back. "Your love for us is astounding,"

Without looking, Sirius slapped James upside the head. "I don't swing that way,"


End file.
